Equinox rises from the edge of day and night. Her Day form offers offensive support while her Night form offers defensive support. She thrives between realms.
This is Equinox, a deadly duality.
A true Tenno must master the divide between night and day. Do you have what it takes?
A duality of contrasting forces in a single entity, Equinox unleashes wrath like the onset of daybreak, or draws life to a close like dusk's approach. Shifting between two forms allows her to bolster Tenno strength in light or provide recuperative respite in darkness. Equinox dawned in Update 17.0 (2015-07-31).
Acquisition
Equinox requires a unique method to craft: Tenno must forge both the Equinox Night Aspect and Equinox Day Aspect in the Foundry – each of which requires its respective Neuroptics, Chassis, and Systems – before the Warframe itself can be built. Component and Aspect blueprints can be obtained by defeating Tyl Regor on Titania, Uranus. Equinox's main blueprint can be purchased from the Market.
“I am the Lotus. I will guide you, but we must hurry.”
Guides are created by users like you. They aren't as strictly regulated as most pages, so keep an eye out for dated or subjective information.
Have your own build and playstyle? You can contribute too! Instructions are within.
See Category:Equinox Guides to read user-made guides on how to play this Warframe.
Notes
Equinox's first Emissive Color determines which form she begins with during a mission – light-colored hues has her start in her Day Form, and dark-colored hues has her start in her Night Form. This does not affect her overall gameplay otherwise.
Equinox currently requires the most components to build, requiring four blueprints each for the Night and Day Aspects, and one for the Warframe itself. This totals to 9 components.
Equinox is one of the most expensive Warframes in credits to build, with the total cost amounting to 225,000 Credits 225,000. This includes the cost to buy the Equinox blueprint from the Market along with the cost in constructing a Forma.
Equinox is currently the only Warframe that requires a Forma to build.
Rushing through all the components requires 300 Platinum 300. If a player desires to rush all of the components, including the main blueprint, it may be wiser to outright buy the Warframe from the market for 325 Platinum 325, which saves 15 Platinum 15 for the pre-installed Orokin Reactor and the Warframe slot.
Equinox is currently the longest to build out of all Warframes. Each component to the Day and Night Aspects takes 12 hours to craft, the Aspects themselves both take 72 hours, and the Warframe itself takes another 72 hours, to a total of 156 hours at minimum.
Trivia
Despite the androgynous nature of Equinox's design, former Community Editorial Coordinator Adam Ma has confirmed that Equinox is a female Warframe with a masculine form.[1]
Equinox appears as her composite form (both day and night) in any shared space, such as in the player's Landing Craft, in Relays, or while using Archwings. This form can also be seen briefly when shifting between forms with Metamorphosis.
When customizing her appearance, a button in the bottom right of the screen labelled "Metamorphosis" allows players to switch between Equinox's three forms. However, leaving the Appearance menu reverts Equinox back to her Composite form.
Equinox refers to a biannual event where daytime and night are of roughly equal duration.
During her development, Equinox's separate forms were originally referred to as Anima and Animus, both of which are concepts in Jungian Psychology. They are respectively described as the feminine and masculine aspects of a person's psyche. Equinox is still referred to as 'AnimaAnimus' internally in the game files.
When Equinox is equipped with Wisp's Agile animation, and unarmed, she will split into her day and night form, similarly to Wukong who spawns his Celestial Twin with the same animation.
Equinox can shift between two forms to alter her abilities: the offensive-focused Day-Form or the defensive/supportive-focused Night-Form. Customizing Equinox's primary emission color determines what form she starts with:
Bright hues change default form to Day-Form;
Dark hues change default form to Night-Form.
Note that players do not need to purchase color palettes to unlock the full potential of this trait.
While customizing her emission color, Equinox's active form is displayed in the form of an icon. Upon changing colors, her combined form in Arsenal preview will also change her stance animation to reflect the chosen form's personality.
Customizing the secondary emission and the energy colors will have no effect.
Forms and abilities can be cycled mid-mission using Metamorphosis.
Abilities
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Equinox expends 25Energy to transform between her night or day forms. She acquires abilities exclusive to each form and gains bonuses that diminish over 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 seconds.
These bonuses decay linearly every second until they equal zero on ability expiration.
Upon switching to Night Form, Equinox can use Rest, Pacify, and Mend.
She gains 100 / 150 / 200 / 250armor and 50 / 75 / 100 / 150shields.
Both are additive with Equinox's current armor and shield capacity (e.g., a level-30 Equinox with a maxed Redirection, Steel Fiber, and Intensify will have 370 + 100 × 1 + 150 × 1.3 = 665 shields and 135 × 1 + 250 × 1.3 = 460 armor within the first second of a rank-3 Metamorphosis after the initial transformation is complete).
On missions with ice hazards, the shield decay rate is halved. When the ability ends, Equinox will be left with overshields equal to 50% of the listed maximum shield bonuses.
Day form
Upon switching to Day Form, Equinox can use Rage, Provoke, and Maim.
She gains 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% weapon damage and 5% / 10% / 12% / 15% movement speed.
The damage buff is additive with the base damage of weapons (e.g., with a maxed Heavy Caliber and Intensify, a weapon that inflicts 250 base damage will be increased to 250 × (1 + 1.65 + 0.25 × 1.3) = 743.75 within the first second of a rank-3 Metamorphosis after the initial transformation is complete).
Does not work on melee weapons
The movement speed buff is multiplicative with other movement speed modifiers (e.g., with a maxed Rush and Intensify, a rank-3 Metamorphosis will increase Equinox's sprint speed to (1 × 1.3) × (1 + 0.15 × 1.3) = 1.5535 within the first second after the initial transformation is complete).
Form switch takes about 1 second to complete.
Switching between forms removes any bonuses granted by the previous form. Only a single set of Metamorphosis buffs can be active at any given time.
While switching, Equinox cannot cast any abilities but can perform all other actions such as moving and using weapons.
Pacify & Provoke and Mend & Maim are deactivated upon casting Metamorphosis. However, casting Metamorphosis in Day Form while Provoke is active will increase the armor and shield bonuses for Equinox's Night Form.
During the transformation, Equinox momentarily becomes whole with her night and day features merged together, then separates into the opposite form.
Duality is a Warframe Augment Mod for Equinox that causes her opposite form to split from her when casting Metamorphosis, creating a Specter armed with the weapon Equinox was using during casting.
Equinox expends 25Energy to hypnotize a target up to 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 meters away, also affecting enemies within 1 / 3 / 3 / 5 meters of the initial target, for 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 seconds.
Night Equinox lulls enemies into sleep, Day Equinox spurs them into hyperactivity.
Affected enemies are forced to sleep. They automatically wake up when the duration expires or their health reaches 80% / 70% / 60% / 50% of their current values.
Enemies retain their current alertness state on cast (i.e., unaware enemies put to sleep will remain unaware for this duration, while alerted enemies will remain alert). Enemies under the effects of Rest will always be susceptible to melee finishers and stealth damage multipliers; however, affected enemies that were previously alerted will not grant Stealth Kill Affinity Bonuses.
Energy threads will visually strike enemies in the targeted area to indicate affected targets.
Day Form
Affected enemies are enraged. They receive 20% / 30% / 40% / 50%Damage Vulnerability, and 5% / 10% / 15% / 20% movement speed and attack speed bonuses.
The damage vulnerability adds multiplicatively to the original damage the affected enemy would receive (e.g., with a maxed Intensify, an enemy that would receive 250 damage will be dealt 250 × (1 + 0.5 × 1.3) = 412.5 damage under the effects of a rank-3 Rage).
Casting Rage while Provoke is active will increase the percentage of damage vulnerability.
Enraged enemies visually emit a ribbon of energy and energy particles.
Energy threads will visually emit from Day Equinox to strike enemies in the targeted area.
Rest and Rage's sleep and enrage effects can overlap on targets already affected by either version of the ability.
Recasting on the same target will not refresh Rest or Rage effects; however, unaffected enemies can be acquired within the targeted area.
Subsuming Equinox to the Helminth will offer Rest & Rage and its augments to be used by other Warframes. The Rest or Rage versions are determined by the Warframe's primary emission color.
Calm & Frenzy is a Warframe Augment Mod for Equinox that aids her in spreading the effects of Rest & Rage. Enemies slain while affected by Rest & Rage spreads it to others within close proximity, for the remaining duration.
Rest can be used for crowd control by using it on a large group of enemies, doing this will let you use stealth attacks on them while they are affected.
Rest is not effective against Eximus units with active Overguard and thus cannot be put to sleep. If the active Overguard is removed, then the unit can be put to sleep.
Rage can be used make Maim more effective by having the aura of Slash damage do more and acquire more charge for a more powerful release.
It is possible to activate stealth kill affinity bonuses on enemies using low-damage automatic weapons (ex. Grakata) by casting Rest on an unaware enemy. Affected enemies can then be shot repeatedly and then killed without changing their unaware state, allowing for the affinity multiplier to activate.
When combined with awareness of nearby enemies and sufficient duration on the ability, Rest can be paired with Covert Lethality to great effect. Casting the ability on otherwise-hard-to-kill enemies -- single targets, or small-to-medium-sized groups -- opens them up to stealth attacks and finisher moves.
Note that this combination is only effective if the targeted enemies are actually vulnerable to stealth finishers. Some enemies, (such as certain infested units or robotic enemies), are either frequently troublesome to target with a finisher move (due to hitbox detection issues) -- such as the Infested Ancients -- or they are completely immune to finisher moves at the time of this writing (Hotfix 18.1.4 (2015-12-21)), because they do not trigger the finisher prompts.
Except for the enemies immune to stealth finishers listed above, this combination works against all enemies, regardless of their alertness level prior to becoming a target of Rest.
Note that mods that affect melee attack-speed will also affect the speed of Finisher animations, so using attack-speed mods in conjunction with Covert Lethality -- rather than just using damage mods -- is advised. (If your strategy is to consistently kill with stealth finishers, it doesn't really matter how much damage your normal attacks would otherwise do.)
Equinox emits a crippling or empowering aura with a radius of 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 meters. Pacify & Provoke will remain active indefinitely until deactivated by casting Metamorphosis, by running out of Energy, or by pressing the ability key again (default 3 ).
Equinox utilizes different versions of the ability depending on her current form:
Night Equinox emits a crippling aura that affects all enemies within range, reducing their damage up to 20% / 33% / 43% / 50% the closer they are to Equinox. While Pacify is active, 1.5 / 1.25 / 1 / 0.5Energy is drained per second for each enemy within the aura.
The damage reduction falls-off with distance.
The aura is divided into 4 subsequent "rings", each with 1/4 of the total radius of the ability.
The first inner ring grants 100% of the listed damage reduction.
The second ring grants 83.33% of the listed damage reduction.
The third ring grants 66.67% of the listed damage reduction.
The fourth ring grants 50% of the listed damage reduction.
The maximum value of damage reduction is calculated through the following formula: Modified Damage Reduction = 1 − [Base Damage Reduction ÷ (1 + Ability Strength)].
For example: With a rank-3 Pacify, and with a maxed Intensify, Equinox reduces enemy damage by 1 − [0.5 ÷ (1 + 0.3)] = 61.5385%.
The first inner ring will reduce enemy damage by 61.5385% × 100% = 61.5385%.
The second ring will reduce enemy damage by 61.5385% × 83.33% = 51.28%.
The third ring will reduce enemy damage by 61.5385% × 66.67% = 41.0277%.
The fourth ring will reduce enemy damage by 61.5385% × 50% = 30.7693%.
Neither Pacify nor Provoke can activate channeling-based Incarnon Genesis perk bonuses.
Enemies in range are highlighted in Equinox's energy color. Color intensity scales with distance from Equinox, with the nearest enemies glowing the brightest.
Day Form
Day Equinox emits an empowering aura that grants Equinox and all ally Warframes within range an additional 5% / 10% / 15% / 20%Ability Strength. While Provoke is active, 5 / 4.33 / 3.66 / 3Energy is drained for each Warframe ability cast within the aura.
Unlike Pacify, the Ability Strength bonus does not fall-off with distance
Ability Strength bonus cannot exceed 50% unless Peaceful Provocation is equipped. Different instances of Provoke auras do not stack, only the strongest bonus will be applied.
Provoke, after being affected by equipped Ability Strength mods, stacks additively with Ability Strength bonuses when applied to other abilities (e.g., with a maxed Intensify, Equinox's abilities will gain 0.3 + 0.2 × 1.3 = 56% Ability Strength when cast while a rank-3 Provoke is active).
In order to acquire the Ability Strength bonus from Provoke, allies only have to cast their abilities while inside the aura.
The additional energy cost is only applied when abilities are activated within the aura, including Equinox's abilities. The energy cost is not applied for energy drains.
Neither Pacify nor Provoke can activate channeling-based Incarnon Genesis perk bonuses.
While switching to Night Form will deactivate Provoke, the armor and shield bonuses from Metamorphosis will gain additional Ability Strength. As such, the additional energy cost will be applied.
Aura radius is visibly determined by wave-like strings of energy orbiting Equinox.
Peaceful Provocation is a Warframe Augment Mod for Equinox that increases the effectiveness of Pacify & Provoke. Pacify converts damage done to Equinox and her allies into an aura that slows enemies by up to 40%. Provoke converts damage done to enemies within the aura into up to 15% bonus Ability Strength.
Equinox calls forth the serenity of night or calamity of day, surrounding herself in an aura of moonlight's gleam or sunlight's glare with a radius of 10 / 12 / 15 / 18 meters.
Mend & Maim expends 50Energy to activate, then drains 3.5 energy per second while active. Mend & Maim will end when Equinox's energy is depleted, Equinox is incapacitated, Mend & Maim is deactivated by casting Metamorphosis, or by pressing the ability key again (default 4 ).
Night Equinox emits a regenerative aura that grants 10 / 15 / 20 / 25Shield per enemy killed within range to Equinox and her allies inside the aura. Mend accumulates 50% / 55% / 60% / 75% of damage dealt to killed enemies' shield and health while they are within the aura radius. Upon deactivating Mend, all stored hitpoints are evenly distributed to the shields and health of Equinox and her allies within range.
Shields gained from enemies killed can accumulate Overshields.
The total amount of accumulated hitpoints is visible under Mend's icon beside Equinox's shield and health indicators.
Hitpoints restored per ally is calculated with the following expression: HP Restored per Ally = Total Accumulated HP ÷ (Equinox + Number of Allies).
When Equinox and her allies are healed, health restoration is prioritized over shield restoration (i.e., Mend will fully restore health before it can fully restore shields). This becomes apparent should there be an insufficient amount of stored hitpoints to completely heal Equinox and her allies within range when Mend is deactivated.
Allies are only healed up to their maximum shields and health; therefore, any excess accumulated hitpoints are effectively lost.
On Defense Objects, Mend restores up to 500 shields over 5 seconds which does not stack with similar restoration effects.
Day form
Day Equinox emits a lacerating aura that deals 75 / 100 / 125 / 150Slash damage with a 100% status chance and Stagger to all enemies within range. Maim accumulates 50% / 55% / 60% / 75% of damage dealt to killed enemies' shield and health while they are within the aura radius as Slash damage. Upon deactivating Maim, all stored damage is released in a violent burst that affects all enemies within range.
Aura damage is affected by Ability Strength, while the damage conversion percentage is not.
Enemies damaged by the aura are temporarily stunned.
The aura damage, proc, and stun will only apply once to each individual enemy.
The total amount of accumulated damage is visible under Maim's icon beside Equinox's shield and health indicators.
Upon deactivation the total accumulated damage is transformed into an area of effect Slash damage, which bypasses obstacles in the environment, against all enemies currently within the aura. Damage diminishes with distance but is not divided among the enemies.
AoE Damage (for each enemy) = Accumulated Damage × (1 - Distance to the Enemy ÷ Aura Radius)
Damage calculation here is before enemy's damage reduction
Casting Maim while Provoke is active will increase the aura damage.
Affected enemies are visually lashed by energy whips as they receive damage.
Maim can be recast to apply the aura damage, proc, and stun on previously affected enemies; however, recasting requires deactivation which will discharge all stored damage.
Aura range is visibly determined by the glistening wave-like energy on all surfaces around Equinox.
Enemies in range are highlighted in Equinox's energy color at its highest color intensity.
Cast delay of 2 seconds and deactivation delay of 1 second are affected by Casting Speed.
Energy Transfer is a Warframe Augment Mod for Equinox that allows Mend & Maim to remain active when switching forms via Metamorphosis, transforming the stored damage OR health charge into the corresponding opposite.
Mend can easily acquire a sufficient amount of charge to heal any allies and recover shields.
Mend & Maim will only absorb allies' damage on enemy health if a Warframe ability is involved.[citation needed]
While active, Mend & Maim will continue to store damage even in operator mode.
As Maim deals only Slash damage, it is less effective against heavily armored enemies like Grineer.
Maim is, however, quite effective against the Infested as they possess no armor and their health classes, except for Sinew, are vulnerable to Slash damage.
As damage accumulation/health conversion rate is not affected by Ability Strength, Mend & Maim wouldn't require high Ability Strength to be effective, especialy if built for effect upon deactivation.
Note that Mend's shield restored per kill is still affected by Ability Strength.
Night Aspect Blueprint
Day Aspect Blueprint
Day Neuroptics Blueprint
Day Chassis Blueprint
Night Systems Blueprint
50
Market Price: 
325
Blueprints Price: 
25,000
225,000. This includes the cost to buy the Equinox blueprint from the Market along with the cost in constructing a Forma.
Equinox collects Health Orbs or Energy Orbs, 10% of the restored amount is converted into additional Energy and Health respectively.
Metamorphosis.
25
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